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bloodfart ,

The early days of stereo (which is what you’re talking about, the recordings of 70s which aren’t using stereo as an “effect” almost universally have the vocals panned to the center. The old way to take the vocals out of a recording was to adjust how much of the signal present equally on both channels was allowed to be played) were all about two things: backwards compatibility with mono systems and giving people with stereo systems a recognizable effect no matter what goofy system they had.

Wild panning accomplishes both goals.

Studio engineering that used the stereo format to create the illusion of a room or capture the sound of the room the players were playing in wasn’t developed yet and came from the experimental stereo recordings that sound crazy now like silver apples of the moon.

Fox ,

What’s interesting is just how different the quality was of some of the stereo releases vs the mono bounces. For an example, the stereo HDCD version of Pet Sounds is a little wack, but even if you joined the two channels to mono it sounds a hundred times better than the shittastic mono release. Got to wonder if they optimized it for AM radio play the way that similarly awful sounding releases in the early 2000s optimized for iPod earbuds.

Orbituary ,
@Orbituary@lemmy.world avatar

There’s actually a biological reason for this, believe it or not. Language and music “time share” many characteristics of both hemispheres of the brain. Language and music are processed in different hemispheres.

Read pages 20-26 of the book “How Music Really Works” by Wayne Chase. It breaks it down in detail.

the_post_of_tom_joad ,
@the_post_of_tom_joad@hexbear.net avatar

One of the worst abuses of stereo in my opinion are old Beatles albums. Maybe cuz the tech was somewhat new they were playing far too much? Too much for me anyway

MermaidsGarden ,
@MermaidsGarden@lemmy.world avatar

This would be more early 60’s, mostly because those engineers were working with 2 track stereo which really limits your options. Most artists were recording on at least 8 track stereo by the 70’s.

sfbing ,

Exactly. This is a 60s thing, not a 70s thing.

someguy3 ,

This might explain why old players had a mono/stereo setting.

unreachable ,
@unreachable@lemmy.world avatar

karaoke moment

Num10ck ,

has anyone tried out apple’s ‘spatial audio’ and how it compares to 5.1?

ayyy ,

It does what it claims to do in that it makes the music sound like it’s coming from a set of speakers a few feet in front of you in a room that has poor sound deadening. I really tried to like it but it just sounds more muddled/is fatiguing for me.

Edit: I haven’t tried it on a it yet tho, maybe that would make it make sense.

minticecream ,

Turns out early audio consoles with stereo didn’t have a pan knob. They had a pan switch. So choices were limited to left, right, or center (mono).

Wasn’t til later that the pan pot was invented allowing incremental panning and true stereo mixing.

Hammocks4All OP ,

That’s wild. But theoretically they could make two separate mono tracks, right? For example, a left mono track with 75% of what would have been an isolated left channel + 25% of the right channel and, similarly, a right mono track with 25% of what would have been an isolated left + 75% of the right. Then, sure, pan switch it fully to left and right.

SpaceNoodle ,

That’s even more complicated.

bizarroland ,

Exactly. Plus the common use of mastering at the time was to optimize the recorded audio for printing on a vinyl disc, and if the grooves were too deep or the transitions to Sharp it could cause the needle to skip out of the track.

If your average listener is going to be listening on a mono device then a smart thing to do would be to pan one thing consistently to one side and the other to the other as the mono needle isn't going to care where it's getting its vibrations from. That would give you more resolution and more depth for the cut, as long as the final disc was only played in mono.

I'm not saying that's the case for every recording but I'm pretty sure it has happened quite a few times back then while they were still figuring everything out.

banazir ,
@banazir@lemmy.ml avatar

I’d be perfectly fine if everything was just mixed mono. I see little value in stereo. I’m weird like that.

zaphod ,

In electronic music you often slightly detune the left and right of a synthesizer to make it sound “wide”, you can’t do that in mono and if you mix the stereo down to mono it sounds boring.

can ,

However most clubs are going to be playing mono so always bounce to mono and test mix.

strawberry ,

like @zaphod said, its mostly to make it sound wider. in mono, everything sounds like its in the center of your skull. in stereo, some stuff it a few inches from my ear (wherever the drivers are), some stuff can be in my head, some can even be in my throat if that makes sense

astrsk ,
@astrsk@fedia.io avatar

It’s fun and interesting all the experimentation that went on back then. As someone deaf in one ear… it’s hard to truly appreciate, but I get it.

mbgid ,

You know, I love those albums where they fucked around did things like hard-pan all the drums to the right channel. I’m here for the experimentation.

the_dopamine_fiend ,
@the_dopamine_fiend@lemmy.world avatar

The jump from mono to stereo made a lot of engineers’ heads spin. Then again, how many 100% perfect 5.1 albums have you heard?

Actually, I’ve listened to only three 5.1 remixes, all of them phenomenal albums to begin with, and their 5.1 jobs were pretty meh. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots came out pretty good, but mainly because they just fucked around and tried stuff.

Iamsqueegee ,

Have you ever listened to Zaireeka appropriately? I haven’t, but that must be a headache to line up correctly.

LucasWaffyWaf ,

It was a pain in the ass but me and a buddy got it working once. I was a young teen and this was long before weed helped me see more beauty in music, so I didn’t get much out of it, but as an adult it’d probably be different.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I thought part of the point of Zaireeka is that it is impossible to get it exact every time, so every time you play it it is a unique soundscape.

li10 ,

I hate the “spatial” mixes.

Sometimes they’re done really well, but most of the time it’s just putting different parts of the song in different areas and makes it sound “diluted”.

Like, the guitar is in front of you, then the bass is behind and to the left… why??

ayyy ,

You’re missing a key ingredient: Lysergic acid diethylamide.

In all other circumstances I agree with you.

Hammocks4All OP ,

It makes sense. I bet it’s super hard, especially at first.

It’s largely a headphone problem, at least for me. I can’t listen to a song where certain tracks are completely isolated to one ear. The audio doesn’t need to be mixed perfectly, but I need at least a little bit of each sound in each ear. Otherwise it’s too distracting. My brain hates it.

Skullgrid ,
@Skullgrid@lemmy.world avatar

They \just got stereo bakk then igth

SzethFriendOfNimi ,
@SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world avatar

Does make it easier to isolate vocals I guess

eightpix ,
@eightpix@lemmy.world avatar

And instrumentals.

Viking_Hippie ,

And vampires

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